Who was the greatest American?

My vote goes to Washington. The reasons are oft stated, but, of course, involve his service as supreme commander of the Revolutionary armies, and his two terms as president. He is possibly the only American who realistically could have become king had he wanted to.

Although i agree with Brandon, i do not have exactly the same reason. Washington did something completely unique in history. On December 23, 1783, he rode into Annapolis, Maryland, where the Continental Congress was then sitting, and surrendered his commission to the government, and then retired to private life, expecting no reward other than his salary (which went unpaid), and content to let his service be his glory. I know of no other figure in history who stood, sword in hand, at the head of a victorious army, with the complete confidence of the people, who so completely surrendered power--and it is the more remarkable given the incompetence (constitutional incompetence) of the Continental Congress. There were many officers in the army, and many people in the population at large, who would have been content to have seen him set himself up as a dictator. A great many of those officers formed the Society of the Cincinatti after the war to attempt to gain political power, due to their resentment, which only grew with Hamilton's financial settlement, and Congresses inability to pay back pay and unwillingness to make land grants. They elected Washington as their "President General" and he not only refused to serve in such a capacity, even ceremonially, he publicly condemned the organization. That's when Fort Washington was renamed Cincinatti, and the sour-puss boys faded into history.

What he did was truly unprecedented, and he carefully walked a narrow line while in command of the Continental Army and later as President. Far too many historians have wasted far too much ink attempting to describe his many limitations--that single act alone puts him head and shoulders above any other historical figure.

D Duck
R MacDonald
Walter Cronkite
B Simpson

and to be serious for a moment

Louise Ciccone

If that's the best you can do for serious, you know precious little about America or Americans. Not that it matters that much, she's your problem now.

Second only to Washington, i would place Margaret Sanger, because of the profound influence she has had on society.

ok I'll do some reseach Margaret Sanger

Set, The name Margaret Sanger sounds familiar, but can you give us some background on her? Thank you.

Was mixing up Margaret with Fred.

Sanger institute not far from here

She was a physician in Hell's Kitchen in New York before the Great War. She was a feminist, and was appalled by the short and brutal lives of emmigrant women who had several children in a few years and died of it. She was the founding impetus of the birth control movement, and the American Birth Control League grew out of her efforts. Planned Parenthood is a direct descendant of this movement. In 1905, she and her fellows were attacked by no less a personage than the President, Theodore Roosevelt, who sadly held to the then popular eugenics view that people of Northern European descent should increase their birthrate as a bulwark against the "lesser" races. This was very ironic coming from a man who had dealt so effectively with the frustrating institutionalized racism which California practiced against the Japanese--but he probably took that stance for reasons of international policy. Roosevelt described women who used birth control as "criminals against the race." Sanger was constantly and scurrilously vilified in the press, but she soldiered on, and the impact of her work has been more profound than that of any other feminist. This likely will get me condemned as a crackpot, but i think historians in the distant future will hold to a similar view, although not necessarily describing her as among the greatest Americans.

George Washington
George Washington, for getting us a country---and the French. We would have not succeeded without their help.

BBB

Setanta got it right about George Washington. No revolutionary leader of his stature ever relinquished power willingly.

His contemporaries - no men of small achievement themselves - held him in incredibly high esteem.

It is probably safe to say there would be no United States without George Washington. He held the revolution together in times when it looked as if it would crumble. He fought delaying and harassing actions until he could field an Army that could challenge the British Army.

After the war, he attended the Constitutional Convention, and his mere presence served to keep the often fractious members on track.

He became the first President - almost by acclamation. After serving two terms, he stepped down. When George III of Great Britain - his opponent - heard that Washington voluntarily stepped down from leadership of the country, he exclaimed that Washington was the "greatest character of his age"

Dolly Madison refused to leave the White House as the British quickly approached to burn it - until she could save the portrait of George Washington. Why such concern over a mere portrait. Why would she risk her life for it?

Here are some comments by his contemporaries:

"He is polite with dignity, affable without familiarity, distant without haughtiness, grave without austerity, modest, wise and good." Abigail Adams

"It is incredible that soldiers composed of men of every age, even children of fifteen, of whites and blacks, almost naked, unpaid, and rather poorly fed, can march so well and stand fire so steadfastly." [I credit] "the calm and calculated measures of General Washington, in whom I daily discover some new and eminent qualities.…" "I cannot find strong enough words," [to tell of Washington] "as vividly and forcefully as I should."
Baron Ludvig von Closen, staff officer to French General Rochambeau

[I had] "occasions to be with him in every situation in which a man is placed in his family…I have never found a single thing that could lessen my respect for him. A complete knowledge of his honesty, uprightness, and candor in all his private transactions have sometime led one to think him more than a man"
Tobias Lear, Washington's personal secretary

"Washington has something uncommonly majestic and commanding in his walk, his address, his figure, and his countenance."
An English visitor, 1796

"Washington had perfect good breeding and a correct knowledge even of the etiquette of a court….Heaven knows…" [how he acquired them.]
Mrs. Henrietta Liston, wife of the British Ambassador during Washington's Presidency

"The greatest character of the age."
King George III, commenting on Washington's willingness to give up power twice: after the Revolution and after the presidency.

"This is the seventh year that he had commanded the army and he has obeyed Congress: More need not be said."
Chevalier de Chastellux, French officer and philosophe on Washington's character

Washington, "has so much martial dignity in his deportment that you would distinguish him to be a general and a soldier from among ten thousand people.…There is not a king in Europe that would not look like a valet de chambre by his side."
Dr. Benjamin Rush, October 1775

"…the best horseman of his age and the most graceful figure that could be seen on horseback."
Thomas Jefferson

"They wanted me to be another Washington."
Napoleon Bonaparte after Waterloo

First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen.

First rate post, Kuvasz, you have my respect.

kuvasz, I second Set's sentiment. Glad to see you on this thread; missed you.

Washington, but I had to be educated to realize it. Thanks, folks.

thanks, but i think it was you who actually posted on abuzz in 2001 most of what i just posted.

as i read the topic it rang a bell and i went back into my old abuzz files and found a lot of the post from 2001 someone had posted on abuzz

most of what i posted above was in my abuzz copy files and to look at it, i think either you, seydlitz or macheath put up most of the quotes, i think i should be thanking you for a good job done, i was just wise enough then to archive your thoughts.

i think it was a tangential response to a thread i put up about "have you ever walked on hallowed ground?" about the battle of gettysburg, posted in july 2001.

I like best napoleon's quote. it registers so well the how radical a man washington was not to want power for power's sake.

I like that turn of thought, Kuv--that Washington, who is so often portrayed as the archetype of a conservative, establishment member of the large land-owning gentry, was in fact a radical. In Freeman's biography, he goes into detail about how Washington completely re-evaluated the plantation system and the tobacco monoculture when he returned from the frontier during the French and Indian War--and then scrapped it altogether.

We make such iconic figures of men such as Washington, that we lose sight of the person. He was very much a radical, and thank you for putting it in those terms.

Archived abuzz from 2001? Boy, would I love to get ahold of some of those to reread and archive myself.

in the days shortly before the demise of abuzz i archived about 100 threads that i thought were the best of the site. its about 35Mbs of data.

how would you like me to get them to you?

Would love it. I can save it on a CD disk.

Thank you for that, kuvasz. A bunch of archived various bits. Mine are fairly sporadic in the saving.

Just that one quote was a great save, just now.